


The End of Light and Time

by storybook_rift



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Finale, End of the world scenario, Everyone is Dead, Extreme AU, Gen, Hat Kid talks more than usual in this fic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Piece Corruption, Time Rifts, What Have I Done, World-of-Light-ish AU, but they come back I promise, changed the rating to general... for now, hat kid’s pretty tech savvy, hopefully, it’s MY fanfic and /I/ get to make up whatever new world mechanics progress the plot, longfic, mild body horror, relationship/character/additional tags to be added as the story progresses, snatcher’s a bit of a jerk but still a soon-deh-ray, the babies don’t deserve this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-11-01 09:17:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20812724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storybook_rift/pseuds/storybook_rift
Summary: **INDEFINITE HIATUS**When Mustache Girl shatters all of Hat Kid’s Time Pieces, she effectively wipes out all life on Earth, leaving their bodiless souls to roam the planet. Now it’s up to Hat Kid and a certain bitter ghost to restore the planet’s life and slay the eldritch abomination that Mu has become.





	1. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hat Kid realizes the storm isn’t the only thing tearing apart the sky.

A bolt of lightning broke loose across the sky of the Alpine Skyline as Hat Kid bounded from one ledge of the mountainous peak to another. There was no time to waste; a devastating illness had spread across the heights of the sky-high Alpine. While the residents of the plagued peaks, the Nomads, stayed safe within their small wooden homes, Hat Kid had taken it upon herself to battle the plant-based illness alone. It was no lesser job, of course, but she was more than used to managing dangerous situations like this one. Especially when considering what she had gone through to get there.

The illness had come suddenly, but not without warning. The blossoming purple buds had been scattered about Alpine Skyline for as long as Hat Kid had first visited the mountains, if not longer. She hadn’t ever thought much of them; they had seemed about as natural as the grass that sprouted beneath her boots. Of course, it was now apparent she should have taken much greater notice of the small flowers.

The flowers’ spores hung thick in the air, and their effects were clearly drastic: the pollen turned the harmless mute goats into savage, rampaging animals. The affected goats stormed after Hat Kid with every chance they got, their thunderous footsteps matching that of the thunderstorm. Lightning flashed across the skies of the Alpine Skyline, almost compensating for the light lost due to the dark overlay of clouds that loomed overhead. Some bolts even came so close to hitting Hat Kid that she could have sworn she felt their electricity flow through her.

But it was no matter, the hatted child thought, swinging from hook to hook with her umbrella and hookshot badge. Taking down the flowers whose huge, thorny vines wrapped around the jagged peaks of the Skyline was surprisingly easy; a few whacks with her umbrella seemed to do the trick just fine.

With a thud, Hat Kid stuck her landing on one of the wooden platforms of the Goat Village. Glancing around, she adjusted her hat. Now, where was that last flower?

A sudden surge of energy directed the child’s gaze to the Old Windmill. _ That should be it, then, _ she thought.

Hat Kid sped off towards the spring that could take her up to the Windmill’s main zipline. The extra confidence in her step boosted her to the jump pad, which she eagerly hopped upon. The spring propelled her into the air, and she easily stuck another landing on the cliff’s edge. Another few hops and dives was all it took to reach the Windmill’s zipline. Swiftly, with a quick flick of the tip of her umbrella, she used her hookshot to cling to the zipline. Yet another simple hop and she was off.

Gliding along the ziplines in Alpine Skyline had always been an enjoyable experience. Whenever she wasn’t looking down into the clouds below, of course. That was quite terrifying. But today she felt an odd sense of unease. Undoubtedly it was from the Illness, yet it still deeply unnerved her, nonetheless. So much so, in fact, that she questioned whether or not her apprehension was from the Illness or something else. Something more. Did she skip breakfast today? Maybe that was it.

Narrowing her eyes, she gazed up at the peaks which jutted from the clouds. _ Which zipline path would lead to the flower? _ Decidedly, Hat Kid leaned left, and the hookshot made a satisfying click to confirm her path.

She became immersed in her own thoughts once more. No, Cooking Cat always made sure she ate breakfast. Even if the day’s events didn’t call for a hearty first meal, Cookie would prepare one anyway. She had to stay true to her name, of course. So then what else could be the cause of her unease? Was the Illness getting to her? Hat Kid shuddered. She didn't want to go feral like the goats had.

Ultimately, she landed at the first segment of the Windmill Peak. Hat Kid took a second to dust off her pale lilac dress before she turned forward, bounding towards the next cliff. Suddenly, just before her, a lightning bolt struck the ground. A fire was promptly set to the blossoming buds of flowers around where it made landfall. Hat Kid stumbled backwards, startled by the sudden event. Shaking her head, she trekked onwards, keeping her path headed towards the mountain edge.

But the hatted child was abruptly stopped in her tracks by another sudden loud _ crack _from the sky. Not one that sounded of thunder or lightning, though. This sound was much deeper, and louder, too. Hat Kid glanced up just in time to see a dazzling flash of light pour across the sky, and not one from a lightning bolt—

The light fell from the sky onto Alpine Skyline, where its sheer force shoved Hat Kid to the cold, jagged stone ground. Her eyes squeezed shut, and she felt herself struggle to even gather a breath under its pressure. Yet through the chaos, a sole thought prevailed: _ This was all too familiar. _

An oddly nostalgic sense of dread filled the child. No, this was _ far _too familiar. When had this happened before? Surely, she’d remember if something like this had happened before, right?

Then it hit her.

_ Someone had just used a Time Piece. _

Only a few seconds after the light fell did it rise again, clearing away, and Hat Kid gradually rose to her feet. _ Someone used a Time Piece. _ Nervously, she put both hands to her hat, focusing. _ Where was that hourglass used? _ she asked, consulting her hat.

Her hat never lied. Now, it pointed up to the sky, past the clouds and into the cosmos. It took no time for Hat Kid to realize the hat pointed to her spaceship.

_ Not only did someone use a Time Piece, someone used one of _ ** _her _ ** _ Time Pieces. _

_ Oh no. _

_ Oh, no no no. _

Well, this was bad. Very, very bad. This was an easy conclusion for Hat Kid to draw. Another easy deduction was that there was only really one thing she could do now - travel up to her spaceship and find the perpetrator. Sure, the Illness was important, but the possible devastation of the planet was much more so.

Whipping out her umbrella, opening it, and hoisting it in the air, she soared up into the sky. Past the clouds, over the deep fog of the illness, and into the atmosphere she flew.

Why didn’t her spaceship notify her of an intruder? The system wasn’t broken, that was for sure. It was very good at doing its job effectively. The alarm blared every time a friend of hers would board the ship, even if the "intruder" was someone that the ship should have found familiar, like Cooking Cat. Heck, it even would notify her if an intruder arrived while she _ wasn’t _on the ship. Her hat would have received waves of weak shocks, as per protocol. Could the lightning from the storm have—

Out of nowhere, another deep crack resounded, and with it came yet another blinding flash of light. Hat Kid was unceremoniously thrown off balance, her position in the air wavering. Her breaths became shorter for a few seconds before the light faded again.

Hat Kid’s heart only raced faster now. Okay, so now they’ve used two. Two Time Pieces. This alone showed risk of immense damage to the timeline. Who knows what they’ve done now? Hat Kid sure didn’t. 

She tried mapping the situation out in her mind: so this person boarded her spaceship without tripping the alarms, somehow unlocked her Time Vault, and was now using her Time Pieces to do who-knows-what. Hat Kid tried her best to speed up her umbrella, but it was no use. Frustrated, she used her free hand to transform her top hat into her speed hat, and she used its booster ability. However, her attempts were futile, and Hat Kid ended up back at her (not so) ordinary top hat. Perhaps she could try her Time Stop hat, Hat Kid thought. She reached up to grasp her hat—

Another splintering boom echoed across the skies. Now, Hat Kid braced herself, sucking in a breath and not letting it go until the light passed over.

Of course they would use a third. Of course. This intruder had access to several dozens of fragments of time with the capabilities to change anything in the timeline that they wished. It’s only natural that they would use a third one. But who was “they?”

There was only one answer that Hat Kid could surmise: Mustache Girl. The girl had been out of the picture for so long that the hatted child had practically forgotten her. For a moment, Hat Kid tried to remember what Mu had even wanted to do with the Time Pieces in the first place.

She had said she wanted to be a “crime fighting time traveler,” right? Hat Kid thought it was something along those lines. While it sounded cool in theory, using Time Pieces even strictly for good was terribly destructive in practice. The Time Pieces were very odd things, with great power and yet even vaster consequences to using them. While they could indeed turn back time and alter the timeline to the user’s will, they took great tolls on the user’s physical and mental health. Hat Kid remembered from her lessons on the hourglasses that as soon as a person found out what a Time Piece could do, said Time Piece’s corruptive agents would kick in. Ruthless and powerful, the hourglass would twist anything it could to get the afflicted person to use it…

Now Hat Kid’s spaceship finally came within view. Her stomach churned. What would she see when she looked through the window? Mu would be there, and Hat Kid would have to fight her, for sure. But was she prepared to do that? And in her own spaceship? The hatted child knew she’d wreck the place, but that was beside the point. What was more important was the presence of the Time Pieces.

Her umbrella took her higher and higher into the atmosphere and into orbit, and she finally took hold of the metallic gold rim of her spaceship. With both relief and anxiousness, she pulled herself up, climbing up the side of the wooden spaceship until she reached the window. Narrowing her eyes, she peered inside…

… and then immediately recoiled back in shock.

A red-hooded figure stood hunched over the Time Vault, and in their clawed hand they held a shimmering Time Piece, tenaciously examining it. The golden lock that should’ve kept the vault shut tight was carelessly discarded on the ground, right in the center of the carpet covered by a snowy layer of shattered time glass. As Hat Kid looked closer, she noticed the figure was definitely, in fact, Mustache Girl; she hadn’t seen anyone else wearing a pink dress and purple belt on the planet. But Mu had definitely changed. Her blonde hair was tangled and sticking out in every direction, and jutting out of her clothes were time shards: bloodied time shards, and they were sticking out of her skin, too.

Hat Kid shuddered. Had the Time Pieces already gotten to her that badly?

This wasn’t good. Something _ really _bad was on the horizon, and Hat Kid knew it. With a case of Time Piece corruption like this, it was inevitable that there would be. She needed to get onto her spaceship and stop Mustache Girl from using any more Time Pieces. She just needed to be quiet, so she wouldn’t startle—

_ Thunk. _

Her umbrella hit the glass of the spaceship. _ Oh. _

Immediately, Mu whipped around to face the source of the noise, and Hat Kid felt her stomach drop in terror. The girl’s round, golden eyes seemed to glare right into the brunette’s soul. And her fangs — Hat Kid wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed before, but Mustache Girl seemed to have grown fangs, and they definitely weren’t coming in right. Blood dripped from her gums and from her torn lips, spilling onto her dress which, too, seemed quite ragged and torn.

Mustache Girl’s piercing amber eyes narrowed, and she bared her fangs. Her clawed grip around the Time Piece in her hand tightened, and Hat Kid belatedly realized that she was going to break it. Snapping back to reality, she hastily shuffled along the edge of the massive window. She needed to get to the door—

A deafening _ crack _rang through the air, and Hat Kid definitely wasn’t ready for it. She fell backwards off of the edge of her ship, her ears still ringing from the blistering sound. She reached for her umbrella, but—

Another bright light hit Hat Kid off balance. Then another. Another, and another, and another…

The suffocating brightness seized Hat Kid’s consciousness, pulling her into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter updates should be posted /at least/ every other Friday from this point onwards. I apologize in advance if I miss an update! In the event of a missed chapter, that installment will be posted ASAP.
> 
> (Also, please note that the first few updates might be a bit late since I am not used to scheduled updating. This is just something new I’m trying out for myself in order to attempt fighting my procrastination.)


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hat Kid finds a friend among the ruins.

Static filled Hat Kid’s mind and body as she gradually emerged from unconsciousness. Everything hurt: her arms, legs, head… peck, she could barely even open her eyes, much less move any limb of her’s. Though, in such a moment of dizziness and confusion, Hat Kid couldn’t have cared less about the throbbing pain. Sluggishly moving her arms to prop herself up, she squinted down at the ground to try and adjust her eyes.

_ Where am I? _

Slowly, Hat Kid looked up, narrowing her eyes at her blurry surroundings. For a second, she couldn’t determine exactly what she was seeing. It was dark, though not the type of dark that would arrive in the nighttime. Rather… shadowy. As though there should’ve been sunlight, but the gloomy overhead clouds and substantial amounts of dust wouldn’t allow it. _ Subcon Forest, _ Hat Kid concluded.

But this wasn’t the Subcon that she knew. The trees had all fallen over, and the ground was covered in murky grey dirt and dust. Rocks and pebbles lay everywhere on the ground — jagged and pointing upwards at just the right angle to slice someone’s shoes open. However, the strangest change of all was the complete silence. Hat Kid was acutely aware from her numerous previous visits that Subcon Forest was not a quiet place; the whispers of the Dwellers, the crackle of the ever-burning forest fire, and the bubble of the swamp had always been around to fill her ears. Now, though, there was nothing but ringing silence.

Hat Kid tried standing up, only to promptly receive a jolt of pain spread through her legs. Looking down, she realized that her lower half had been crushed by a fallen tree. _ This complicates things, _ she thought, reaching over and attempting to shove the wood off of her legs. It was no use, though, and the charred Subcon tree remained resting on top of her.

_ …Why again am I visiting Subcon? _

Her mind went blank for a second — only one second. And then she remembered.

_ The Time Pieces. The light. Her spaceship. Mu. The Time Pieces… _

A jostle of sudden terror snapped Hat Kid from her thoughts. _ Oh no. Oh PECK no! _ Hastily, she pushed the tree away from her as hard as she could, ignoring the groans of pain from her arms. Hat Kid needed to get up quickly. She needed to see what Mu did to the timeline. She even needed to check for survivors, if necessary. She hoped it wouldn’t be.

With one final heave, the tree rolled off of Hat Kid’s legs with a thunk, which reverberated throughout the silence of the forest. Carefully, she dusted off her legs, picking out the numerous splinters that poked from her skin. After adequately treating her injuries, Hat Kid slowly and shakily stood up.

Now that her vision had adjusted to become less blurry, she could see the full range of damage that the forest suffered. The place was completely and utterly devastated; it looked as though a tornado had blown clear through it. Splayed across the dust-covered floor were scraps of wood — planks and splints alike — as well as entire halves of Dweller masks and the torn cloth of Subconite cloaks. There were even torn book pages blowing in the wind — presumably remnants of the Snatcher’s personal bookshelf.

Taking a couple steps forward, Hat Kid felt her heart pound. Her breathing grew shallow, and she didn’t know whether it was from the thin air or the situation at hand. Maybe a bit of both. _ I should really focus on calming down about now, _ said some small, insignificant voice in the back of her mind. The voice was ignored, and Hat Kid continued to panic.

_ Did Mu kill everyone? Surely she didn’t, right? There are survivors other than me… right? _

She shouldn’t have had to search for survivors: Hat Kid knew that. But just by judging the state of Subcon alone, she figured it would easily be in her best interest.

And so, Hat Kid began to stagger through the ruins of Subcon Forest. After taking a few limping steps forward, she ran a hand through her chocolate brown hair, letting her fingers travel all the way down the strands to their snowy white tips. The hatted child wondered where she would even begin to search. There was so much to investigate, so many possible places to find survivors. _ Or corpses, _ another voice butted in.

She should just go forward. _ Nothing wrong with that, right? _ Yep. Hat Kid continued walking, momentarily shouldering the claws of terror that grasped at her fragile confidence.

She sifted through the rubble for a while; perhaps about twenty minutes or so. With every step she took, her washed out, sandy gold cape would swish behind her, flapping gently in the breeze. [In fact, all of her clothes were fairly washed out. Especially her dress. What was originally a bold violet had been watered down over the years to become a pale, calm lilac color. Even now, she couldn’t quite be bothered to buy new clothes; the washed-out colors suited her well anyways.](https://imgur.com/a/KAMynQY)

As she kicked up a rock off the ground with her boot, Hat Kid felt her heart begin to drop. All that she had found thus far were the remnants of Subconite doll bodies and the charred masks of the Dwellers. Some Dweller masks were even shattered when she found them. _God, how badly had Mu messed up the timeline?_ Hat Kid had a sinking feeling that she had heavily underestimated the magnitude of the mustached girl’s power trip.

A single stray thorny vine that had not yet shriveled up reached out from the ground to grasp Hat Kid’s arm. She recognized these vines as a part of the traps that Snatcher had set up in his forest to “catch fools like you,” as he put it. Now, though, they had no use. There was not a “fool” in sight to catch — besides herself, of course. She slapped the vine away, and it fell to the ground, immediately folding in on itself and melding with the dust.

Sighing, she trekked on, not noticing the inky shadow that had just manifested behind her.

Hat Kid needed to go somewhere else; Subcon was clearly a goner. Would she go to Alpine Skyline? Dead Bird? Mafia Town? The Moon? She shook her head. Those places were far too inaccessible. For now, she _ really _needed to get back up to her spaceship. From there she could survey the damage done to the timeline and planet, and she could attempt to set things right to the best of her ability. If that were even possible.

Hat Kid drew her umbrella, preparing to open it, when a sudden voice from behind startled her.

“HEY! Where do you think you’re going, kid?”

Hat Kid immediately whipped around, pointing her umbrella towards the source of the noise. However, she just as quickly lowered her weapon of choice when her golden eyes met a familiar face…

“Snatcher!” she exclaimed, her voice filled with relief. _ So there _ were _ survivors! _ Taking a second to survey him, Hat Kid noticed the ghost hadn’t changed one bit since she’d last seen him, even after his forest had gotten wrecked. 

“The one and only,” the ghost mused, glaring down at the child with glowing eyes.

Not sensing the annoyance in the violet spirit’s voice, Hat Kid continued voicing her excitement in her friend’s presence: “Y-you’re here! Alive!”

“Well, not exactly _ alive_. You know, ghosts can’t die a second time, kiddo— wh- HEY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!”

During Snatcher’s short monologue, Hat Kid had gone in for a hug. After all, she hadn’t seen her contractually obliged BFF in a long while; of course she should be able to give him a hug! But her arms had barely looped around the spirit’s body when he plucked her up by the cape, hoisting her into the air several feet above the ground. Hat Kid squirmed a bit in the air before Snatcher placed her back on the ground, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Can you do me a favor, kid? _Never do that again,_" he hissed, his voice practically dripping with acid.

Hat Kid huffed and crossed her arms. Despite him being her Best Friend Forever, Snatcher never showed it. In fact, he even actively _denied _his contractual obligations! She knew she should have been able to get back at him or something for that, but Snatcher would always just point out loopholes that invalidated her points. He was _definitely_ that thing from TV: was it soon-deh-ray? Sun-duh-ray?

"Well? Are you going to answer my question or not?”

Snapped out of her thoughts, Hat Kid looked back up at Snatcher and tilted her head to the side.

“_Where are you going?_”

_ Oh, duh, _ Hat Kid thought. She _ did _still need to get up there... “To my spaceship,” she responded, repositioning her umbrella in the air. Seeing the immediate dismay on her BFF’s face, she hastily added: “You can teleport and stuff, right? Teleport up there if you need me!”

Hat Kid prepared to launch into the air, but was immediately dragged back down by Snatcher, who now looked angrier than ever. “NOPE! You’re not going anywhere, kid! You’re going to tell me _exactly _what happened to my forest.”

Hat Kid gulped. _ Right. Of course. _

“Don’t give me that look! I know you know what happened here, and you’re going to tell me _every bit of it. _”

The small brunette nervously twirled the ribbon on her hat. “Well… it’s kind of complicated…” She glanced around at the ruined landscape for a second before returning her gaze to Snatcher, who was still impatiently anticipating a response. “Some peck neck kinda… uhh… got onto my spaceship and smashed all of my Time Pieces?”

“_All of them?_” Snatcher queried, arching a nonexistent brow.

“All of them,” Hat Kid echoed back, looking down at the ground. “At least I think so. Nothing else could have caused this much damage.”

Snatcher scratched his chin (did he have one?), looking around. The small child took this opportunity to continue speaking. “That’s why I need to get back up to the spaceship. I need to—“

“Get a general overview of the damage? Try and figure out how to fix it? I’m not dumb, kid.”

“Right,” Hat Kid muttered, looking down.

For a moment, a silence panned between the two. Only the quiet whistle of the wind and the distant thunk of fallen trees could be heard for about a half of an entire minute. Hat Kid didn’t know what to do. She knew getting Snatcher to aid her would be a very difficult task; the ghost was not the easiest entity to work with. Not only that, but the child was certain that even with the end of the world at hand, he would still stray away from any deal not involving her soul or someone else’s. Hat Kid tapped her foot on the ground, glancing at her umbrella._ Maybe I should leave him for now, _ she thought. That would probably be for the best, right?

“So—” Hat Kid began, but she was quickly cut off by Snatcher clearing his throat.

"Kid, I honestly don’t understand how you’re expecting me to be able to help you. ‘Mass extinction and general destruction of an entire planet’ aren’t exactly my area of expertise, you know? And besides, I don’t work for free,” he summoned a blank contract in one clawed hand for reference, “so unless you’ve got a soul or two to waste, you’re on your own!” With that final remark, the Snatcher turned to leave.

The hatted child felt her heart plummet. “Wait a minute! I—“

The spirit turned back around one last time to face Hat Kid, a sad smile adorning his ghostly face. “I’m sorry, kiddo! But I can’t help you here! I wish I could — really, I’m serious! I’d love to get Subcon back as much as the next guy, but the situation’s looking pretty helpless! I hope you’re up for the task!”

Finally, Snatcher plunged into the shadow of a nearby tree — one of the few still standing — and disappeared from sight. Hat Kid ran after the ghost, following him to the tree’s shadow, where she now stood over the silhouette. Staring aimlessly into the dark pool where the light didn’t shine, Hat Kid felt a hollow feeling open up inside of her:

Loneliness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops i'm two days late, sorry about that ;;
> 
> thankfully most of the exposition is out of the way now, so!! :) we should have more frequent updates now (as long as my motivation wants to work with me)!


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Snatcher makes a tough decision.

After about five minutes, when the kid ultimately gave up waiting for him and set off to her spaceship, Snatcher exited his shadowy hiding spot. He scowled to himself. She was quite the persistent one, wasn’t she? And she didn’t learn when he gave her orders. That previous encounter had to have been _ at least _ her fourth try at giving him a hug. Snatcher could hardly even fathom why she wanted to be his “friend” anyways. He was supposed to be intimidating! Menacing! The deadly shadow of Subcon Forest, murderer of anyone who stepped in his domain! And this — this _ kid _ — she wanted to be his _ Best Friend Forever? _What kind of humiliating nonsense was that?

Snatcher shook his head, grumbling incoherently to himself as he floated away. It was due time that he got back to what he started as soon as he woke up in the ruins of Subcon: searching for his minions. Surely, not _ every one _ of them were dead. The kid was definitely exaggerating when she was relieved to see him. Definitely. One of his minions _ absolutely _ survived… whatever the hell happened to the planet. After all, Snatcher had 103 of them. The odds were in his favor. If the kid of all people had survived that strange light apocalypse, one of his minions would have _ had _ to have. Yes, he had told her the situation was dismal, but that was only to make her go away! He wasn’t doubtful _ at all _ in this little search-and-rescue mission.

Snatcher knew Subcon Forest like the back of his clawed hand. Even when it was completely demolished. He could tell where Subcon Village used to be, as well his tree, the swamp, and the frozen land that Queen Vanessa ruled. It was all still there, if only a memory in the back of his mind. And he was going to search every bit of it.

He started with the swamp, which had more than flooded over the edges and was currently streaking across what was left of Subcon’s dead grass.

Snatcher wondered for a minute what the kid was going to try and do in this situation. She didn’t have the power to turn back time to how it originally was; from what Snatcher remembered of his studies on the mysterious relics, he knew she’d need a LOT of Time Pieces to do that. And she definitely wasn’t going anywhere with no Time Pieces. And all of her friends’ souls were aimlessly roaming the Earth, so there was no chance in finding them and/or bringing them back. Now that Snatcher thought about it, this _ may _ have been worse than he’d initially assumed.

After a thorough search, Snatcher concluded there were no Subconites or Dwellers alive in the swamp. _ Of course not, _ he thought. _ The swamp devours everything it comes in contact with! It’s inevitable that my minions would die in there. _

Next, he searched Subcon Village. If he was seeking places to find living Subconites, they’d certainly flock to their homes.

_ Maybe the kid is going to try to put one of her Time Pieces back together, _ Snatcher considered. That was something that a super-powerful alien spaceship could do, right? He wasn’t certain — he’d never been up there before. Hat Kid likely wouldn’t let him up there anyways for not agreeing to work with her.

He hissed and tossed a large tree limb aside, continuing to search the wreckage.

What did she think he could do, anyways? Sure, he was an extremely formidable and destructive force to be reckoned with, but only such inside his own domain. Snatcher hated to admit it, but he could probably hardly make a scratch without Subcon Forest, _ his _ forest, having his back.

He huffed, settling down for a second. Snatcher coiled his body around a thick tree stump, crossing his arms and surveying the ruins of Subcon Village.

_ That’s true, _ he admitted. Definitely true, as much as it stung his pride to say.

_ And where is your forest? _ a small voice in the back of Snatcher’s asked him. _ Oh yeah — it’s _ gone_. And so are your Subconites. You ought to stop denying the truth to save your own pride, Snatcher. _

For the first time in a long while, Snatcher felt himself become a little empty at this realization. _ Oh._ He really _ did _ do that, huh?

Now Snatcher looked at the ruins of his forest with less of a glare of resentment and more of a gaze of sorrow. It really was gone, huh? His forest… all that he had devoted his afterlife to working for… it was gone. Just like that. He had never thoroughly considered until now just how much he needed his forest. Yes, he loved his domain. He cared for it like he would his own child, but he’d never considered that he _ needed _ it. He was Snatcher, after all! Mother! Pecking! _ Snatcher! _

He set his face in his hands and sighed.

The little voice spoke up again. _ You know… only one person can bring you your forest back. _

Snatcher groaned. Of course! It was just his luck, wasn’t it? The only person who could restore him to his former glory was the little brat. This couldn’t end well for him. No — it just straight-up _ wasn’t _ going to end well. She was going to make him actually fulfill the contractual obligations of that botched contract of her’s, or something. It would be so excruciating…

_ … but it's worth it, right? To become king of your domain again? To command over your army again? To have your home back again?_

The ghost uncoiled himself quickly. It was best he did this before he had the chance to give it a second thought. Squinting up at the sky, he frowned. _ Now, where is her spaceship? _ After a second of searching, he noticed there appeared to be a small, blocky brown dot visible between the clouds. _ There! _At least, he thought it was there. He hoped it was there.

Taking a deep breath, he silently cursed his one humble brain cell for producing the thoughts that brought him to this point before closing his eyes and teleporting to the dot in the sky.

…

When the teleportation was complete, the first thing that Snatcher noticed was that it smelled like fabric. Freshly washed, as though it had just gone through the washer and doused with fabric cleaner. Normally, this would have disgusted him, but it meant he was in the right place.

It was also dark. Suffocatingly dark. He tried looking around, but there was only darkness on all sides. It almost felt like he was enveloped in clay, and the walls were closing in on all sides. He squirmed around, flailing in the endless fabric void, hoping he’d find an exit. At last, a faint glimmer of light appeared. Not bright light, but light, nonetheless. Snatcher reached out for it and pulled himself up.

Wheezing a bit, the ghost looked back at what had suffocated him. It took a second to click.

It was a swimming pool of pillows. _ A swimming pool of pillows. _

_ What. The. Hell. _ He had nearly suffocated in _ a swimming pool of pillows. _

Oh, he was in the right place alright.

He appeared to have emerged in the kid’s bedroom, judging by the large, curtained blue bed against the wall and the tall cyan dresser adjacent to it. There was a desk, a toy box, and, of course, the pool of pillows. _ Why did she have a pool of pillows?? _

Growling at the pillow pile, he made his way to what appeared to be the door. It was purple and circular shaped with a glowing, flashing red ring around the middle. Snatcher supposed the red ring meant that it was locked. Groaning a little bit, he slinked into the shadows and easily passed by it. _ Alien problems require Earthling solutions, _ he mused.

He emerged in the main room, where a figure tinkering with the inner workings of a long golden bar struck his eye. She appeared to have taken a panel off of some sort of apparatus and was presently trying to fix it. At least, he assumed she was trying to fix it, since every possible button and LED light was glowing red. Sitting back on a conveniently placed burger cushion, he watched her work for a little bit, pondering what she was doing. Every once in a while, she would mutter something to herself, and Snatcher wondered if she was talking about him. 

Eventually, a _ click _ resonated throughout the room, and Snatcher heard Hat Kid exclaim an “a-ha!”

Suddenly, all of the lights in the main room turned on at once. The glowing red rings on the doors disappeared, and everything began functioning properly again. Which meant he was visible now. Hat Kid turned around quicker than he could disappear, and she noticed him. Her victorious smile was replaced with a malcontented frown, which stitched itself into her face, and she crossed her arms.

“What are you doing here? I thought you said you didn’t want to help me,” she snapped, tapping her boot on the ground.

Snatcher was taken aback by her sudden harsh tone. He hadn’t even thought the kid was even capable of speaking in such a manner until now — he was clearly proven to be poorly mistaken. It took him a moment to conjure a response in his mind; that was something that he’d neglected to plan out beforehand. He couldn’t explicitly say he wanted to help her: no, that would give her too much satisfaction. An idea popped into his mind.

“Oh, I don’t. I just have another contract for you! I thought you might like to see it.” Snatcher’s expression shone bright with his usual glowing grin.

But Hat Kid’s frown only deepened. “I already told you! I don’t want to do any of your ‘Death Wishes!’ I’m fine, really!”

“That’s not what— just take the contract!” he sputtered, poofing a golden-toned contract into existence and setting it in front of Hat Kid. Gripping it in her stubby hands, she narrowed her eyes at it:

**CONTRACT**

** _Help Snatcher return Subcon Forest to how it once was._ **

**[ ] Collect all of the Time Pieces needed to restore the planet back to normal.**

**[ ] Revert the timeline back to its former state (hence, bringing Subcon Forest back).**

**The following parts of the forest will be available:**

**All of it (once you return it to its former glory!)**

** _I’ll be aiding you along the way, but don’t take it personally! I just want my forest back, kid!_ **

**Signed __________**

“Sooo…” Hat Kid began, rereading the paper a couple of times. “You… want me to return Subcon to how it once was, so you’re going to help me.”

Snatcher shrugged. “If that’s what you take from the contract, then sure! Just sign down there at the bottom.”

The kid chuckled for a bit, and her frown dissipated into a smile. Taking up a quill which was summoned alongside the contact, she inscribed her name in an alien language on the fine line.

The contract disappeared. “It looks like we’re in business again!” Snatcher clasped his clawed hands together. “I hope you know what you’re doing, because I’m counting on you to get my forest back!”

She adjusted her lilac hat. “Yep! I just turned on the generator,” she turned around to the part of her spaceship that she had taken the panel off of, “which should keep the spaceship up and running for about a month until we can get another Time Piece.” She waved her hand dismissively. “More than enough time!”

Snatcher nodded, sinking back into the burger cushion. There were many holes in the kid’s plan from his perspective, but she was a smart cookie. She could work these things out. And with him in tow now? That was at least 3 times the brain power! They just needed to iron out the details one at a time: “So how are we finding those Time Pieces, exactly?”

Hat Kid stroked her chin, thinking for a moment. She walked over to her enormous window, which overlooked the planet. “Well… we could go looking for Time Piece shards! But that would be like looking for a needle in a haystack with the size of this planet, so there’s not much hope in that…” She trailed off, observing the planet turning in outer space. “But even then, making Time Pieces is an even more draining and intense process that requires the stitching and weaving of spacetime itself, and we simply don’t have the power for that. So since that’s out of the question, looking for the shards might be in our best interest.”

Snatcher blinked. “We’re looking for… shards?” Hat Kid turned around and gave him a brief nod. He shrugged. “Sorry kid, I’m not as knowledgeable in Time Pieces as you are. You’ll—!?”

He was quickly cut off by a wailing sound from Hat Kid’s spaceship. Specifically, from around the apparatus that she had just been tinkering with. Red lights on the dock shone bright. The kid ran over to the machine, and after pressing a few buttons, she recoiled in surprise. 

“...What?” she murmured to herself, retracting her hand from the dock’s surface.

Equally confused, Snatcher slithered over to her, hovering over her shoulder and looking at the screen, which showed a glaring red warning in that same alien language that the kid had signed her name in.

“What does it say? I can’t read that.” Snatcher asked, narrowing his eyes at it.

Hat Kid didn’t flinch by the ghost’s sudden presence behind her; she merely kept staring dumbfoundedly at the screen.

“It says ‘Soul Rift detected.’”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here comes snatchy. oh lawd he comin.
> 
> (as well as maybe someone else...? haha, jk... unless? :eyes:)


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hat Kid analyses the situation at hand.

_ “Soul Rift detected!” _

Soul Rift detected? What the peck did that mean? What was a Soul Rift? Was it like a Time Rift? It was popping up on her anomaly apparatus like one, so maybe it was? Hat Kid had so many questions and so little ideas that could provide an answer to them. The only thing that she could surmise was that Time Rifts were typically formed when a Time Piece hit an object or a person (in the latter case, it would turn purple). But if that was a _ Time _ Rift, then what was a _ Soul _Rift?

“... What does that mean?” Snatcher queried from behind her. Hat Kid turned around to face the ghost, glancing at him for a second before turning back to the machine’s screen.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, tapping her apparatus to make the warning go away. The glowing blue display shone upon her face, temporarily dyeing it a blue hue. “Let me see if my spaceship can tell me anything about it.”

Swiping and tapping, Hat Kid navigated the interface, being forced to tap away several error messages that were likely a result of her spaceship’s current lack of Time Pieces. Because of this, it had taken a moment before she reached what she was looking for. Putting a finger to the monitor, she read aloud:

“Soul Rift detected! Time Piece fell and hit a soul… created a Soul Rift. Potential of Time Piece shards inside.” Hat Kid made sure to read loud enough so that Snatcher could hear. Turning around, she looked her ghostly BFF in the eye, smiling. “Well, there’s your definition!”

“Good to know, good to know…” the purple entity muttered, trailing off for a second before picking back up, “So… how exactly is this valuable to us? Is it in Subcon?”

Hat Kid blinked. “I’m not sure.” Returning to the interface, she tapped out of a few windows and into a couple of others. When her spaceship showed her the location of the Soul Rift, her eyes widened. “It looks like it’s in Mafia Town.”

“Mafia Town.” Snatcher echoed flatly. “Never heard of it.”

“It’s this city located on an island not too far from Subcon,” Hat Kid explained as she struggled to identify a more specific location for the Soul Rift. “It used to be full of nice people, but then the Mafia of Cooks took it over! It’s where—“

“Woah, kid,” the ghost interrupted. The brunette turned around to see Snatcher crossing his arms, his eyes narrowed. “I didn’t ask for the full history! Nor did I ever ask what it was, anyway. Because I don’t care.”

Hat Kid sighed, turning back to her work. “Of course you don’t,” she huffed, tapping the screen just a bit harder in her frustration. While Snatcher had always been like that — interrupting her and claiming he didn’t care — it still annoyed her to no end. The least he could do was let her monologue, now that they were stuck together until she revived Subcon Forest.

Finally, after a minute that felt like an eternity, a blurry picture of the approximate location of the Soul Rift appeared on her screen. The mysterious golden orb appeared to be stuck in the side of a collapsed house. Shattered blue shingles lined the cracked sidewalk in front of the orb; white plaster bricks laid about too. And even though she wasn’t even there, Hat Kid could still hear the crackle and sputter of the tear in time.

“So…” Snatcher, who had returned to the burger cushion, spoke up, “What are you going to do about it?”

Narrowing her eyes determinedly at the screen, she smiled. Hat Kid unsheathed her umbrella from her pale golden cloak and turned to face Snatcher. “We’re going to go and find it!”

The ghost, however, wasn’t so enthusiastic. He frowned discontentedly. “Wait, ‘we?’ Who said I wanted to do this? I’d much rather stay up here; that ‘Soul Rift’ is _ your _ problem. You can go find it _ by yourself_.”

Now Hat Kid mirrored his frown. “But what if this ‘Soul Rift’ is dangerous? I’ll need someone to help me if I get hurt! And you can’t bring Subcon Forest back without me.”

There was a beat, and Snatcher’s claw twitched and he hissed to himself. Hat Kid’s frown slowly turned into a smirk. She knew she’d be able to spend some quality time with her BFF one way or another, and this was the prime opportunity. She just needed Snatcher to say one word…

“... Fine.”

_ Yes! _ The child smiled. “Thank you!”

“Well, I can’t have you dying yet, can I? That’s my job.”

Ignoring the shadow’s mild threat, Hat Kid opened the door on her window. She turned back to face the apparition that had now taken to fiddling with a piece of fabric on the edge of the cushion.

“I’m going down. Teleport to me whenever you’re ready! I’ll be waiting for you!” Hat Kid called cheerily. She opened her umbrella and slipped from her spaceship, shutting the glass door behind her as she fell. And she fell, and she fell. Not that quickly, though. She steered her umbrella towards Mafia Island, having had memorized the sky route from her several prior visits. She would need to turn a little farther left soon, to counter some winds…

—

After a few minutes of falling, Hat Kid landed at the docks of Mafia Town. At least, they were clearly _ formerly _docks. Hat Kid was standing on one of the few boats that had not capsized, as the rest of the docks were completely flooded. Planks, possessions, and even furniture were floating about in the water, moving only by the wind’s gusts. Surveying the scene before her, Hat Kid wasn’t sure what she had expected upon arrival. But she definitely hadn’t been expecting something as catastrophic as this.

Carefully, Hat Kid hopped from one capsized boat to the next until she reached solid land. Using the toppled bricks to her advantage, she climbed up several fallen buildings and other structures, not the least of which being golden Mafia men, until she reached a high enough ground to search for the Soul Rift. Even with the high-ground, however, a quick glance over the scene before her revealed that the girl that she had heavily underestimated the task.

While Subcon Forest had been desolate, Mafia Town was a complete and utter monstrous mess. Finding the Soul Rift here would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

At least the faucets had not turned on. That, Hat Kid was grateful for. She didn’t want to relive that episode. But it did appear as though the giant water geyser in the center of the city had halted its flow, and the Mafia HQ sat crashed into the brick structure that served as the centerpiece for the town. Hat Kid shuddered as she tried to imagine the mess that would be inside the HQ. The shattered bottles of booze… the rotten fish…_ I hope my adventures never take me up there. _

Her thoughts returned to that grainy image of where the Soul Rift was located. It would have been helpful, had not every building around her been collapsed like the one she saw in the image. In fact, everything in that image was vague and able to suit all of the imploded buildings of Mafia Town. Stripped of their shingles? Yep. Fallen bricks scattered on the ground? You bet. The only difference setting this house apart was the Rift. _ Maybe I should have come here at night. Those things glow, right? _

“Having trouble, kiddo?” a voice suddenly boomed from behind her.

Hat Kid nearly jumped out of her cape, squeaking a little in fright. She whipped around to face Snatcher. “HEY! You scared me!”

Snatcher’s signature grin was imprinted on his face, his hands clasped together happily. “Good to know I’m doing my job properly! What’s up? You find that ‘Soul Rift’ thing yet?”

The brunette grumbled. “Well, no… but I’ve only just begun searching! And besides, you can clearly see how jumbled up this place is!”

“I can,” Snatcher mused, still grinning. “and that just sucks! But I guess that’s your luck, isn’t it?” With the way his voice echoed, it sounded as though he were holding back a laugh.

Hat Kid huffed. If she weren’t the better kid, she would cuss at her BFF right now, for sure. This whole situation weighed down on the hatted child like a boulder. Of course it would; the fate of the whole _ planet _ rested on her shoulders! And now he had the audacity to joke at her struggles? Who did he think he was? Someone _ better _ than her? He’d probably stolen some several hundred souls, so positively not. Someone _ stronger _than her? She’d beat him up before; she wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

But despite everything, Hat Kid took a deep breath. She tried forcing her anger out of her mind. Now wasn’t the time for that.

“Yes,” she muttered, her voice bitter and cold. “It is ‘just my luck,’ Snatcher.” She allowed there to be a beat for her words to (hopefully) sink in. “But that doesn’t mean we give up here!”

Turning towards the edge of the building, Hat Kid strode towards it with a newfound sense of confidence. She was going to find that Soul Rift and wipe that smug grin off her BFF’s face. Peeking down over the ledge, she was glad to see the sidewalk was only a few meters down. She hopped off the building, landing with a solid _ thud _on the fractured concrete. Looking both directions, she walked onward.

For a minute, Snatcher didn’t join her, and Hat Kid assumed he went back up to her spaceship. She was thinking of ways to give him a piece of her mind when after said minute, he appeared by her side once more. He did not say anything. The ghost simply hovered alongside her, acting as her second pair of eyes in searching for the Rift. Deep inside, Hat Kid felt a sense of triumph, though she didn’t show it.

After a few minutes of stepping over golden Mafia arms, broken bottles and Mafia banners, Hat Kid noticed that Snatcher had stopped at an intersection of roads.

“Hey, kid,” he finally spoke, “have we been down that road yet? I think I see something.”

The child blinked curiously. “No, we haven’t. What are you seeing—?”

Hat Kid hardly finished her sentence when her eyes locked onto exactly what Snatcher was referring to. A golden orb, twitching and blinking in and out of reality, stuck in the side of a white plaster brick building. Blue shattered shingles laid all around it, and even bricks from the houses next to it were scattered on the sidewalk. Hat Kid’s golden eyes lit up.

“That’s it!” she exclaimed, running towards (while being careful not to trip over a loose brick) the glowing tear in reality.

With every pounding step she took, the crackling sound of the orb grew louder. And when she reached it, the snaps and pops made it difficult for Hat Kid to even hear herself talk.

Snatcher teleported behind her again, appearing from the shadows. “So this is it, huh? Do you even know what’s inside that thing?”

“Nope!” Hat Kid answered cheerfully. “But I guess I’ll find out!” She paused. “That’s why you’re here to teleport me back to my spaceship if I come out hurt!”

“Right,” Snatcher muttered, averting his gaze. “But what I mean is… what if that thing is deadly? It looks pretty unstable to me, kiddo.”

“Are you worried about me dying?”

“Wh- huh?! No, not at all! I’d just rather you die by my own hands rather than some… pesky ‘Soul Rift,’ or whatever.” Snatcher crossed his arms, looking uncomfortable.

Hat Kid giggled, flashing the ghost a smug smirk. “Okay. Alright. Whatever you say, BFF.”

“Ugh.”

As the young girl further approached the Rift, a light, continuous gust of wind from the crackling orb lifted her cape. She reached out to touch it, but then hesitated, looking back at Snatcher. She smiled.

“See ya!”

Hat Kid plunged her hand into the golden Soul Rift, and almost immediately, she felt it go cold. Time around the child seemed to stop, even Snatcher’s gold face was frozen on his mildly annoyed frown. Light scattered outwards in beams that shone like the sun’s rays, filing Hat Kid’s vision before she was once again met with dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oop there she goes
> 
> and I just wanted to quickly say thank you to everyone who's supported this fanfiction so far!! you guys are too amazing ;w;


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